This is the time of year when the thoughts of many people turn to money, if only because they keep wondering how they’re ever going to be able to pay off the debt they’re racking up in the name of Santa Claus.

Here in California, or La-La Land, as it’s known to those fortunate enough to live elsewhere, we have so much money that we don’t even think twice about raising Jerry Brown’s salary from $182,789 to $190,100. Of course, we can afford it. If we couldn’t, would we also be bumping the salaries of those in the state legislature from $100,111 to $104,115? And having done so, we certainly wouldn’t be so stone-hearted not to do the same for the lieutenant governor, the attorney general, the superintendent of public instruction, the controller, the treasurer, the insurance commissioner, the secretary of state and four members of the State Board of Equalization.

Why, you might be wondering, are we being so generous? The reason that Mr. Claus is stuffing all those greenbacks in the Christmas stockings of all these good boys and girls is because something called a citizens’ panel determined it was warranted because of California’s improved economy and healthy state budget.

When I read that, I broke out in laughter. But then I realized they were being serious.

You could have fooled me. I mean, considering that we have the nation’s highest taxes, and that, for the sake of some lower species of fish life, we have turned our farmland into sand; watched one company after another pack up and leave for the greener pastures of Arizona, Nevada and Texas; while simultaneously rolling out the red carpet and the gravy train for illegal aliens, who would have guessed we were rolling in dough?

What’s more, we face a future that calls for hundreds of billions of dollars in pensions for politicians and civil servants. If we actually come up with the money to raise all these salaries and pay off on all those IOU’s, it would constitute the most amazing miracle since the birth of Baby Jesus.

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A recent guest on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show was Gary Leonard, a senior attending American University, where the tuition runs $62,500-a-year. It seems the young knucklehead is leading a movement to oust one of the school’s trustees. It’s little wonder the little Twinkies are offended by Gary Cohn’s connection to the university. After all, he’s not only affiliated with Goldman Sachs, but he recently had a sit-down with Donald Trump. Clearly, Mr. Cohn carries the mark of Cain upon his brow.

The fact that Cohn not only doesn’t receive a salary from AU, but is a generous donor to the school, cuts no ice with the terminally offended. As someone old enough to be the grandfather of these arrogant little snots, I always find myself wondering how the parents feel when they see their offspring on TV burning flags, chanting banal slogans or giving the finger to someone like Mr. Cohn.

Is that really what they were expecting when they wrote out a check for $250,000 and sent little Susie or Sean off to be prepared for life as a grown-up?

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As bad as things are at American University, which is located in the nation’s capital, things may be even more dire at the University of Texas-Austin. It’s at that school where a professor of philosophy, Daniel Bonevac, reports he can no longer teach ethics. For years, the professor would raise controversial topics in a most ingenious way. One day, for instance, he would devote the hour to the case for abortions. At the next session, he would make the case against abortions. He would then break the class down to groups of three or four students and have them thrash the matter out between them.

As Prof. Bonevac said, he tried to be fair in his presentation, leaving it up to his students to decide these important issues for themselves. But it seems he can no longer carry on because his students have been so brain-washed that they refuse to accept that there could possibly be two sides to any question. The professor is convinced that even if any of them entertain politically incorrect opinions, they’re afraid to voice them for fear of being banished from what constitutes impolite society in those little academic fiefdoms.

If there is any good news coming out of our colleges these days, it’s that the presidents of Brown and Princeton have determined that theirs will not be sanctuary campuses. Mighty thin gruel, I agree, but about as much in the way of a bang that conservative parents are likely to receive for their bucks these days.

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You would have thought that Trump had dropped a nuke on Beijing the way the pundits and some politicians carried on all because the President-elect took a phone call from the president of Taiwan. Apparently, the elitists have become so accustomed to Barack Obama bending over for our enemies in Cuba, Syria, Russia and Iran, they have come to believe that is how American diplomacy is supposed to work. The fact that Trump might prefer having cordial relations with our allies in Israel and Taiwan simply caught them unaware.

Why any American believes we owe China anything but our contempt is beyond me. Even Sen, Chuck Schumer has said that China has pulled off the greatest financial heist in human history through their theft of our intellectual property, but liberals are aghast over the fact that Trump twisted the bully’s nose by having a five-minute chat with the democratically-elected president of an ally.

If only the leftist twerps had been able to display the same moral outrage when Obama sold us out to the Ayatollah or kissed the ass of Raul Castro, one might have reason to credit them with honorable intentions. Instead, they merely expose themselves once again as cheap partisan hacks.

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As those of you who read me faithfully know, I can’t stand football. Not the players, not the coaches, not the owners, not the rules. But even I have to grant that there is a genre of humor that involves football players and coaches that I love, even if I don’t always believe that the attributed lines were actually spoken by those being credited. But if I didn’t mention the names connected to the quotes, you might think I made them up. I only wish I had.

“At Georgia Southern, we don’t cheat. That costs money, and we don’t have any.” (Erik Russell, Georgia Southern)

“The man who complains about the way the football bounces is likely to be the one who dropped it.” (Lou Holtz, Notre Dame)

“I don’t expect to win enough games to be put on NCAA probation. I just want to win enough to warrant an investigation.” (Bob Devaney, Nebraska)

“I never graduated from Iowa. But I was only there for two terms — Truman’s and Eisenhower’s.” (Alex Karras, Iowa)

“Football is not a contact sport, it is a collision sport. Dancing is a contact sport.” (Duffy Daugherty, Michigan State)

“If lessons are learned in defeat, our team is getting a great education.” (Murray Warmath, Minnesota)

“We didn’t tackle well today, but we made up for it by not blocking.” (John McKay, USC)

(Ohio State’s Urban Meyer on one of his players) “He doesn’t know the meaning of the word ‘fear.’ In fact, I just saw his grades and he doesn’t know the meaning of a lot of words.”

Q. Why do Tennessee fans wear orange? A. So they can dress that way for the game on Saturday, go hunting on Sunday and pick up the trash on Monday.

Q. How did the Auburn player die from drinking milk? A. The cow fell on him.

Q. If three Rutgers football players are in the same car, who’s driving? A. The police officer.

Q. How many Purdue freshmen football players does it take to change a light bulb? A. None. That’s a sophomore course.

Q. What do you get when you put 32 Arkansas cheerleaders in one room? A. A full set of teeth.

Q. How do you get a former Illinois football player off your porch? A. Pay him for the pizza.

Q. What do you say to a Florida State University football player dressed in a three-piece suit? A. “Will the defendant please rise.”